Category Archives: Music

My iPod #174: Beastie Boys – Ch-Check It Out

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“To the 5 Boroughs” was the Beastie Boys’ long awaited release after a six year wait from 1998’s “Hello Nasty”. “Ch-Check It Out” was the first single to be released from it, and is probably the song that introduced me to the group.

There is nothing better than three old guys who could rap very well and act silly in their video when you are nine years old, and I watched it over and over again on the Windows Media Player. After a few more listens, and a look at its lyrics I was able to memorise the whole song. Something I can, just about, still do to this very day.

Very sad that we may never hear new material by the group due to the passing of “MCA” Adam Yauch, and if there unexpectedly is it definitely wouldn’t be the same.

My iPod #173: They Might Be Giants – Certain People I Could Name

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Today has been very unproductive. Had my breakfast about one, a shower at four…. apart from that I have just stayed in bed. All this because I was out last night for a very special event which I can barely remember going to now. What a shame.

That also meant I was could not type up my daily post. But it is all fine now, I am putting up another one later on.

It’s They Might Be Giants again, this time with the song “Certain People I Could Name” from their 1999 album “Long Tall Weekend”, the first full-length album to be released exclusively on the Internet if you didn’t know.

It was originally recorded for the previous album “Factory Showroom” but was left out.

The band’s website states this about the track: “A piano driven song with subtle charm from the Factory Showroom era. Don’t really know how this got put aside, but I suspect it was probably more due to its mid-tempo than its high quality.”

I cannot really add much to that. Listen for yourselves. 😀

My iPod #172: They Might Be Giants – Celebration

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Here is another celebration. This time by They Might Be Giants, for about the fourth time already in the ‘C’ series. The fun never ends.

“Celebration” is a Flansburgh penned ‘They’ song, and is an observational commentary of a night out in a club but filled with imagery and vocabulary use that only the two Johns could ever think of. That’s about all there is to it, really. I make it sound very tame, but the disco beat of that chorus, Flansburgh’s vocal manipulation and the catchy ‘oh-oh-ohs’ are only a few of things that make the tune one of the most enjoyable from “Join Us”.

Listen out for a Phil Collins drum fill that occurs near the end.

My iPod #171: Kanye West – Celebration

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While we all wonder on what Kanye was thinking when he was about to shoot the video for “Bound 2”, it seems quite fitting that today’s song is one of his most underrated from arguably his second best album.

“Celebration” from “Late Registration” is a track where Mr. West actually sounds like he is having fun, and not trying to prove a point about how awesome he is, or how people should gaze and bow at his presence whenever he walks into a room. He may not rap about that last part explicitly, but he might as well do.

No, “Celebration” is a good ol’ mid-noughties hip-hop track about appreciating the good times we share with one another. It actually shows us that Kanye could be funny too; the line where he tells his ‘child’ that he was a mistake because he didn’t use protection, but then saves it by calling it his ‘favourite accident’? That’s priceless.

My iPod #170: Supergrass – Caught by the Fuzz

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Supergrass’ first official single as a band. Sounding like it was recorded in a few minutes in cramped and compact room, “Caught by the Fuzz” is an autobiographical account of lead singer Gaz Coombe’s first time of being arrested by the police when he was only 15.

The song is very quick. Quite punk-esque, with a semi-talking verse and a belter of a chorus which all end with the word ‘tonight’. Well, it’s not really a chorus. But if you listen to it, you will understand what I mean.

The film “Hot Fuzz” has this track playing during the credits, so if you wanted to know what that song was called…. here it is.

It is the second song on the band’s first album “I Should Coco“, a bit of Cockney rhyming slang for those of you who aren’t familiar.